1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of data communications for personal computers (PCs), and in particular to a system for dynamically filtering network content to be downloaded to a network client.
2. Related Art
The Internet is quickly becoming the preferred data communications medium for a broad class of computer users ranging from private individuals to large multi-national corporations. Such users now routinely employ the Internet to access information, distribute information, correspond electronically, and even conduct personal conferencing. An ever-growing number of individuals, organizations and businesses have established a presence on the Internet through xe2x80x9cWeb pagesxe2x80x9d on the World-Wide Web (xe2x80x9cthe Webxe2x80x9d).
As the popularity of the Internet has grown, so too have concerns about the nature of some of the content available on the largely-unregulated network. For example, many parents are concerned about the ready availability of obscene and/or pornographic material. Accordingly, there has been an effort to develop mechanisms for selectively preventing content from being downloaded to particular users or groups of users.
Existing content blocking technologies are generally based on URL (Uniform Resource Locator) classifications, rather than on the content itself. For example, a list of URLs may be pre-categorized (for example, as violent, obscene), often manually by humans. Any request for a data object is then checked against this list and access is denied if the requested URL is in a list for a category that the user or supervisor (such as an employer or parent) has previously decided to block. This review and pre-categorization of URLs is a significant drawback, limiting the flexibility and responsiveness of such blocking schemes. Accordingly, there is a need for a content-based blocking mechanism that may be used in place of, or in conjunction with, existing blocking schemes.
An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for dynamically filtering a data object to be rendered on a client device. According to this embodiment, the data object is scanned for content satisfying a predetermined selection criterion. If the predetermined selection criterion is satisfied, the data object is selectively provided to the client device in accordance with a predetermined filtering preference.